Man gets 10 years for felony DWI
Kevin Sanders had five previous driving while intoxicated convictions
NEW BOSTON, Texas—A Bowie County jury assessed a maximum 10-year sentence Wednesday after finding a Texarkana, Ark., man guilty of felony driving while intoxicated.
Kevin Dwayne Sanders, 54, turned down a plea bargain offer from the District Attorney’s Office to take his chances with a jury. The deal would have required him to serve a term of probation that likely would have included counseling and substance abuse treatment.
Judge John Tidwell presided over the case in the 202nd District Court. After listening to a day of testimony, the jury spent about 30 minutes deliberating before finding Sanders guilty and about the same amount of time determining his punishment for the third-degree felony.
Sanders has five previous DWI convictions in Texas and Arkansas, said Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter, who prosecuted the case with First Assistant District Attorney Mike Shepherd.
“We’re very pleased the citizens of Bowie County recognized the danger of (this) particular defendant in that they removed him from the community before he killed someone,” Shepherd said. “He had to be stopped.”
Sanders was arrested by Department of Public Safety Trooper Michael Ferguson in the early hours of May 19, 2015, according to a probable-cause affidavit used to create the follow-
ing account. When Ferguson arrived at the site of a single-car crash on Farm to Market Road 989 shortly after 2 a.m., he found a wrecked black Jaguar XR that had struck a fence post and observed Sanders attempting to climb over a pipe gate. Other deputies who arrived before Ferguson were already trying to “retrieve” Sanders.
Sanders reportedly was visibly intoxicated and combative.
“Field sobriety tests were not attempted due to Sanders’ manner and state,” the affidavit states.
Carter said the jury watched police dash camera videos during the trial, which left little doubt of his impairment.
Sanders’ lawyer, David Potter of Texarkana, argued that Sanders had not been driving and that a friend, who could not be located in the nearly two years that have passed between the arrest and trial, had left the scene before the arrival of law enforcement.